The present invention is a device for collecting, storing, and transporting medical biopsy specimens.
During a surgical procedure, tissue specimens may be collected through biopsy for laboratory analyses. Frequently, multiple tissue specimens are collected at the same time. For example, during an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, specimens are collected from the esophagus, the stomach, and the duodenum; a lower gastrointestinal endoscopy collects specimens from the rectum, the left and right colon, and the terminal ileum; a gynecological evaluation uses specimens collected from the cervix, the endocervix, and the endometrium; and a prostate evaluation uses specimens collected at several sites in the prostate gland. As the tissue specimens are collected, they are placed in individual and separate preservative-filled containers or chambers.
Because the specimen containers are sent to a central laboratory for analysis, each container must be labeled with patient identifying information, such as patient name, biopsy site, responsible physician, and an analysis requisition sticker. The process of organizing, labeling, and submitting multiple individual and separate biopsy specimens from a given patient is time consuming and tedious for the submitting doctor and nurse, because of the need for surgical personnel to exchange containers between each specimen collected. The receiving laboratory must also deal with numerous specimen containers from any one patient, increasing the risk of mislabeling or losing one or more specimens.
Specimen collection devices have been designed with several containers joined together. For example, U.S. Pat. No. D367,932, issued to Lim, describes a containment device with several containers joined at the lip, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,935,384, issued to Schalm et al, teaches that containers can be united on a base or a tray. The containers in these devices are uniformly sized and separated from each other by relatively equal distances. The overall design of these containment devices are convenient for conducting standardized laboratory tests, but can be burdensome for the physician to use during a surgical procedure because relatively specific information about the biopsy site must be provided for each individual sample. Further, because the containers are of a uniform size, the biopsy specimens collected must either be of relatively uniform size, or multiple collection devices must be used during a procedure.
A few specimen collection devices have multiple containers that vary in size, such as the device taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,609,827, issued to Russell et al. These devices assume a primary biopsy site, with other specimens being collected from the immediate vicinity of the primary site. The collection device of the Russell et al patent allows the specimens to be labeled to show the relative positioning of the secondary specimens as compared to the primary specimen, but does not specify the location of the primary site within the body.